[PSUBS-MAILIST] kooky transparent conning idea

[William Alford <walford@dbtech.net>]

After seeing a transparent hyperbaric chamber, I couldn't help but daydream of
a completely 360 degree transparent conning tower. Hospitals that have these
entirely transparent HBOT chambers are required to replace them every 10K hours
or 10 years at a cost of around 10 grand. I wonder if one could get the old
tube from them for cheap. Of course, the cycles/fatigue that makes them unable
to use after 10k hrs  might be of same concern for a sub. They are usually
rated to 3 ATA (99 feet of sea water) for internal pressure, but I wonder if
that is because of the acrylic, or door attachments, o-ring seals, etc. And it
may be an insurance/engineering thing of little real engineering merit. Who
knows. From this photo - http://www.dotmed.com/listing/67798  you can see the
realitively straightforward construction as they are assembled with four
massive threaded rods (threaded on ends) to seal each chamber end onto the
tube. It'd be reasonable to fabricate a bottom flange on sub body and
corresponding top flange with the hatch built into the top one. Simple o-rings
inside flange grooves receiving the tube ends would seal. Of course, like the
"side slip" o-rings described by Phil Nuyten a long time back, once submerged
the water pressure would force elements together and seal the seams and the
orings and wouldn't depend on the rods except for alignment. Of course it would
be somewhat more fragile construction and probably couldn't dive very deep, but
wouldn't it be cool to have all around 360 degree visibility! One can buy the
new tubes from a manufacturer - http://www.blanson.com/,
http://www.blanson.com/products/hyperbarics.htm to custom wall thicknesses, and
yes, they say they also make windows/portholes.

Of course 3 psubbers could go together to buy a tube and cut into sections for
towers. Maybe they have shorter (thicker) ones for less money? . . . yeah, I
said kooky.

William Alford



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